“The platform of our party gives us the opportunity to render moral co-operation in the greatest movement of righteousness in the history of the world, and at the same time to hold our own interests free from peril.  Our position is plain.  The circumstances of the last eighteen months convict the Republican leadership of attempted trickery with the American people.  Under one pretext after another they prevented the readjustment of national conditions.  They proposed certain reservations to the League of Nations, and then they were abandoned, to be followed by nothing more definite than the announcement of a ‘hope’ that an entirely new arrangement might be made in world affairs.  What method they have in mind, if it is concretely in anyone’s mind, the people do not know.  No unprejudiced person can deny that the consequence of abandoning the League and attempting an entirely new project, will be prolonged delay.  If the voters of the Republic, without regard to party, desire action, and prompt action along lines that are now clearly understood, they will render a verdict so overwhelmingly expressive of public indignation that scheming politicians for years to come will not forget.

“In the fact of an efficient leadership during the war, and of constructive, progressive, economic service in peace, the Republican leaders developed a smoke screen, behind which they seek to gain their objective, the spoils of office.  For years the best thought and the humanitarian impulses of civilized countries have been applied to the high purpose of making war practically impossible.  The League of Nations became the composite agreement, and now the senatorial oligarchy meets it with the absurd plea that it increases the probability of armed conflict.  It not only reveals unworthy intent, but a very poor estimate of American intelligence as well.”

Taking the issue to the people, and free from what he termed strait-jacket restrictions, the Governor said at Columbus, when he talked to the Ohio Democratic Convention: 

“I carefully reviewed the platform adopted at Chicago, and studied its principles, but I know as much about it now as when I started to read it.  I gave intensive thought also to the speech made by the Republican candidate, the purpose of which was to interpret the meaning of that historic document, and after long and vigilant labor I found two pronouncements.  What was the first?  The statement that staggered the sensibilities of the civilization of the world, the unthinkable, monstrous proposal, that in the midst of the uncertainty of the hour, a separate peace ought to be made with Germany.  I want you to go back with me just a year and a half, to the time when victory was son; to the time when our boys maintained their vigils on the banks of the Rhine, standing there in solid formation with 2,000,000 great lads behind them.  Germany signed the peace document on the dotted line.  What has happened in the united States Senate to